i didn't either. 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night, the show that's the sworn enemy line pomposity, smugness and groupthink. guess what we got for you? i'll admit it, sean hannity takes over the next hour live from new york city right now. >> sean: i'm really glad you didn't take a got away from his new baby tonight. you're growing. every day you grow a little more. great show. >> tucker: i become a better man every day. >> sean: you're a better man every day. we start tonight with a fox news alert. the president donald trump, who announced he is running for reelection, he will join us in just a few minutes, an exclusive one-on-one interview. unlike the medium, we will let himm talk. last night the president officially kicked off his reelection bid, a massive rally. 20,000 seat arena in orlando packed to the brim. more than 150,000 people, by the way, wanted to be there, and many more stood in an overflow area outside with some literally waiting in line over 40 plus

hours. just to get in. the greatest show on earth considering there's s no guitar, billy joel, it's jimi hendrix and i don't think the president sings well, but the president and thousands and thousands of pumped up supporters. i would say it's fair to compare his crowds to any of his radical socialist 24 democrats that want to go up against him in his next presidential election, like for example, sleepy, creepy, crazy uncle joe. is he ever filled an arena? one time? obama did. i don'tti think joe has. only 600 people came to his first campaign rally. elizabeth warren to her to her credit that slightly better, a whopping 3,500 supporters that showed up in her home state of massachusetts. meanwhile, the one-time rising star of the democratic party, robert francis, beto, he amassed a thousand people, roughly one 20th the size of the president's

rally. look at your screen. the enthusiasm gap is massive, but not everyone sees the handwriting on the wall, so-called journalists, so-called pendants. the ones that have been lying to you for two plus years, that push conspiracy theories and hoaxes and never thought donald trump would win. they used last night's rally to trash the president and his supporters, and by the way, as we start the show tonight i also start with a thank you, because we had well over 5 million people just tuned into this one hour. never mind tucker sauer. never mind the other cable channels. never mind the other media outlets. very impressive showing. we are not the medium. we are more than smelly people that like walmart, cling to our gun, god, bibles and religion. we are not irredeemable deplorable. although some people think so, and ites appears the mob has

learned absolutely, positively nothing from 2016. >> it turned into a locker up chance. >> just as will the president accountable, we should hold his followers who make those accountable as well. >> almost like the live action of american carnage. it didn't feel like a celebration of america being great in. >> everyone there, this affirmative feeling of the greatness of our country or some vision for the future. if there were a lot of people there, a smattering, there were people wearing their formal flip-flops and their best cargo pants. >> no disrespect to the king of rock 'n' roll, but this is elvis in '77. just kind of lumbering across the stage, sweating.

>> sean: i have a message for the a conspiracy theorist on fae ornews mbc. n the conspiracy network, the americans who showed up last night and flip-flops and cargo shorts, they will be the people that she was the next president. they are the ones that were right in 2016 and all of you were wrong. i suggest you go back and watch yourself on election day and i know the exit polls showed that donald trump didn't win and you all started out your coverage giddy and happy and uplifted and you thought you had it in the bag and then all of a sudden, well, north carolina came around and wisconsin came around and ndmichigan came around and pennsylvania came around, and ohio came around, and florida came around, and what happened? didn't work out the way w you wanted and you could see the depression set in in the media mob. an amazing night. at the forgotten men and women in this country, the ones that suffered the most under biden-obama, the people that make this country great everyday. they didn't buy into your lives, your conspiracy theories and

your hoaxnt the last two years d as the president has been setting records as it relates to the economy and jobs and everything else, well, they have turned off the nightly vitriol on fake news cnn and msnbc. they've had enough of all of your disgusting comparisons too. jeff zucker, you run fake news cnn, your ratings are in the tank. i know jimmy acosta is begging to be on my show. histo book was 550 on amazon today. you can barely break a million at any c hour during the day. we had over 5 million last night. nobody's watching. can you let your journalist" don lemon say this on your network last night? you should be ashamed of yourself, take a look. >> the thing about the despicable people without history, i'm going to use an extreme example. think about hitler, any of those people. if you could look back in history, would you say, well,

i'm so glad that that person was allowed a platform so that they could spreadd their hate and propaganda and lies, or would you say it probably wasn't the right thing to do to spread that because you knew in the moment that that was a bad person and they were doing bad things. not only were they hurting people, they were killing people, so i just think that -- >> the example matters, and that's a very extreme example. >> sean: what really happened was this. when the president's six plus minutes into the seats set all those fake news people in the back and the crowd democrats started chanting again, not chanting, screaming, well, telling the truth about fake news cnn. that cnn socks. cnn couldn't take the criticism, and they turned it off. don lemon and jeff zucker, you need to pick up a history book every now and then fromne prison reform to tax cuts to promises made and kept, constitutional justices, the right to try, to

ending burdensome regulation, to energy independence, to killing that stupid iranian deal, to react, recognizing israel and jerusalem as the capital and israel's territory, president trump is permitted to preserving the freedom of all americans in case you haven't noticed because every second of every minute of every hour of every day focused on the president, obama-biden had 13 more americans on food stamps, 8 million more in property. the worst recovery since the 40s. was participation rate since the 70s, lowest home ownership rate in 51 years, they took on more debt than all 43 presidents combined and never hit 3% gdp in their eight years. now we have a record low unemployment for african-americans, for asian-americans, ichispanic-americans, women in e workplace, and youth

unemployment is literally at a 50 year low. if that means kids stay out of trouble. rather incorrigible. now energy independent for the first time in 75 years. the president's approval rating by the way, i don't think he writes like most politicians. i don't think you can pull him honestly, that's my opinion. but anyway, that's not all. for the first time in many decades, if you would stop with your rage, your psychosis, and your obsession and hating the president, the trump administration is taking major steps to hold our massive government bureaucracy accountable. president trump with attorney general bill barr, the story that you missed, the biggest abuse of power in american history, corruption on a level that is so bad that if we don't stop it we will lose this great democratic republic that so many fought, bled, and died for. with the corrupt 1% of a two-tier justice system in this

country, they're finally getting the attention they deserve. unfortunately, you were all wrong, this program got it right, and thankfully we had an ensemble team, john solomon, gregg jarrett, tom fitton, sara carter. i can't mention -- jeanine pirro, joe digenova. i can't mention everybody. committed to peeling every layer of the deep state onion and tonight the hill's john solomon is back with another bombshell report. for months we have highlighted christopher steele's dirty dossier, bought and paid for, russian lies were hillary clinton. according to solomon it was not the only fraudulent document used against a trump campaign associate. in 2017 the fbi pushed something called the black cash ledger to obtain multiple warrants, in this case on paul manafort. only problem -- by the way, i think they want paul manafort to die in jail. first isolation. now they want to put him in rikers. i then they want to give him the state charges and charge him all over again, which i believe is double jeopardy, and i've always

known that mueller and his merry team of wiseman, the pitbull, quentin's former attorney, were just bad people, but the ledger which these other news networks would never tell you about was full of a lot of a lot of stuff. solomon writes "the feds were warned repeatedly the document couldn't be trusted and likely was a fake. ukraine's top prosecutors of the document was nothing, was not authenticated, should not be used in any way to bring accusations against anybody." wow, the ledger's key assertion. paul manafort received cash payments by all accounts are totally false. more of my monologue coming up. president trump is coming up right after. first joining us with this breaking news, he is the vice president of the hill, investigative reporter john solomon. john, i will throw it to you. this is a big story. >> absolutely. the second piece of evidence we now know the fbi used to justify the early trump investigation for which there were warned early on the information was

likely suspect and perhaps fake. this black ledger turned up in ukraine in 2016 and very early on the fbi was repeatedly warned that the information didn't match the official record to the party of regions on paul manafort's records and get a year later in 2017 when they began executing search warrants, they use the ledger in the fbi affidavit supporting probable cause saying this ledgerr exist, critical media reports talk about it. if we think you should consider it as you give us the power to have this search warrant. i've talked to criminal defense lawyers, fbi supervisors, they reviewed all the evidence i did. they were shocked to see the fbi use as people called it inexplicable against the fbi manual. it's the second time we've now seen the fbi proceeding with evidence for which they had not properly. it >> sean: you know, i just urge everyone read this. it's on hannity.com, foxnews.com, it's on my twitter account. fbi warned early and often that

he might be fake, they used it anyway. i've always said why wouldft you appoint a team of only democrats? couldn't find one republican? you're really going to appoint hillary clinton's attorney? investigate russia and not investigate the ponyil dossier? john solomon thank you. joining is now by the way -- the president will be joining us in a minute. first reaction from newt gingrich, mr. speaker , i see literally unfolding before our eyes something you're very familiar with, and that is a choice election. but you bought republicans back to power for the first time in 40 years, i will ask you. >> i thought the >> i thought the president's choice of keep america great was close to perfect. people who want to keep america weak, i think in contrast to the average person, by next summer -- this is my message frankly to the to the house

republicans, too, i think trump card win, try to shatter an election, which makes it possible to pay back the house, to increases in a majority, and you look at where the democrats are going, they are verging on crazy. you look at their issue choices, let's have a big debate about whether or not we need reparations for slavery, let's have a big debate about whether or not we should be able to kill babies after they are born. let's have a debate about open borders, sanctuary cities, letting illegal criminals out. the democrats are setting themselves up, and i think the president needs to listen, he knows it's there, he's a great campaigner, and i thought his kickoff was just astounding. >> sean: mr. speaker, you've been through a lot of election cycles. d.c. the 24 democrats. we see the crowds the president draws everywhere he goes, he doesn't sing or play guitar or play the piano. h i mean, seriously. we don't't see this.

you've been around a long time. what is a difference, compared to the democrats that are running. >> it's a huge difference. donald j. trump ran for office to represent the average working american patriot who is sick and tired of their country being sold out, sick and tired of the elite arrogant bureaucracy, which you just discussed with john solomon about the whole notion of what the fbi was doing, exactly why the american people are upset. trump has proven that he's got great courage. he took two and half, three years of being beaten up every single day, did not back off 1 inch, just kept coming, and so i think the average -- my guess is that trump's potential now somewhere between 55, 60% with the election is over, because between the economy, more african-americans employed than ever before, more latinos employed, wages going up, and the value choice between the

anti-american life that we are seeing emerge every single day. the things that aoc said the last few days about the notion that we somehow have concentration camps on the border. just an absolute, total lie. i think the average american ise going to look at that and say, that's not a party i trust and president trump has proven i can trust him. >> sean: mr. speaker, i would only enter a few for one person. it certainly wouldn't beor me. thank you for being with us. joining us now is the president of united states. president trump, sir, good to have you on the program. >> president trump: hi, sean. >> sean: i watched you last night. you seemed to really love doing what you did last night. explain why this is important to you, and why -- there is a phenomenon that people show up at your rallies, we don't see

the same thing at the democratic rallies. why is that, in your view? >> president trump: there was tremendous energy in that room last night. there was -- and we've had a lot of energy in virtually every rally. but there was just a special energy. i announced we are going forward with a second term, as you know. but the level of -- it was like being at a world championship college football game where the score was tied going into the last minute. it was -- the entire rally. it was incredible scene. outside, there were thousands of people, and we were asking people not to show up. we're saying, please, don't show up because we had 121,000 people, i guess it holds 20 or 25,000 people inside if you include the basketball court, which was loaded up with great, loving patriots. and there was just an electric evening, sean. >> sean: i want to ask you.

i don't know if you saw our show on monday, but monday we had our friend lawrence jones down there, i guess it was tuesday night -- no, it was monday. it looked like a tailgating party, and people there 40, 45 hours in the pouring rain before the event. i actually kind of regretted not going because i wanted to hang out with the people outside because they were having a blas blast. >> president trump: they are people that love our country, and they love seeing what is happening. it was noaa tailgate party for the country, not for a team, although as a team when you think about it. it was a tailgate country for ourator party. and it was like love. it is love for what we are all about, for the things we stand for. it was a beautiful evening. it was an evening -- we had a lot of people that don't like us so much, you possibly have heard

about that, sean. >> sean: i thought about read about that. >> president trump: people were it was -- some say they've never seen anything like it. it was special. you know, it was boring. they had a monsoon. i don't think one person walked off. they had rain like you have not seen, and it didn't -- nobody left. they just sat there and stood there and some brought tents, they were there for two days, waiting to get them. incredible evening. >> sean: i bought a painting from this guy in utah, his name is john mcnaughton, it was called "the forgotten man." i paid a lot of money for it. i have the original copy. i bought it because it matter to me. if you recall 2015 and 2016, i told everybody what the biden-obama record was after eight years. i said it almost every day on radio and tv for a year. 13 million more americans on food stamps, 8 million more in

property, worth recovery since the '40s, lowest homeownership rate in 54 years, lowest labor participation rates and see '70s, more debt than 43 presidents before that combined and they never hit one year 3% gdp growth for a year. those are all real people. you talked at length about record low unemployment, the best employment situation from 1969. i know the media talks about russia still after four investigations, they want a fifth. but what does it mean to you that we have now 2 million more jobs available thann people that are on unemployment? what does it mean to you? >> president trump: the media is not talking about russia so much. theng mueller report concluded that on russia, there was absolutely no collusion. frankly, they lead to the conclusion by our great attorney general that there was no obstruction, the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. it was a hoax. it was a hoax, a witch hunt, but

a hoax. the whole thing. gregg jarrett said it very well when he named his book. "the russian hoax." it is disgraceful that they are -- they are very upset now because it did not turn out like they thought because we did, we had 18 angry democrats that hated drum, and many of them contributed to hillary's campaign, and it came out there was no collusion. so i don't hear russia much anymore. they've given up on that one. they did something that is a disgrace. i will also say, if the other side had won, if hillary won, you would, instead being up almost 50% since election, 5 million jobs plus plus, 5 million jobs, that is something to think of, i would have said that we would create 5 million jobs in two and half years, we people would've said, how. i would have been skewered by the press. all of the things that have been

done that were down, nobody has seen it. we have the best and lowest unemployment rate for african-americans, for asians, for hispanics, that nobody's ever see numbers like this. we have the best numbers on living standard for african-americans, the best numbers that we have ever had a history. so many things are -- i mean, just one thing after another. if the other side would have won, we would have gone into a depression and we were headed that way, we were headed that way. the rules,ru regulations, we cut more regulations than any president, and meaningful regulation, we want regulation but it's got to be meaningful. it stymied our country, sean. we weren't able to do anything. jobs numbers would have been a disaster. instead, we have more people working today, almost 160 million people, than have ever worked in the history of our country. think of that. that is a great number. so it's really been something. the other side, i really believe

he would have had a crash. >> sean: mr. president, i come from group blue-collar roots, n years in the restaurant business, at 12, i was washing dishes by hand, ten years in the construction business, every job available. i really identify with the forgotten men and women i think everybody in this job, and the media, we are overpaid and most of them are lazy. i just want to -- when you think back, and those statistics i just gave you, 13 million, 8 million, those are real american citizens, real lives, and to now they are really doing better, and i think one of the best things that is understatedi is, we are, for the first time t at 75 years, energy independent, ywhich means we don't have to o casinge the ass of countries tht don't like us and we are not exporter of energy and by the way, if putin remains hostile and russia remainsy hostile, i think we ought produce them and bringhe their economy to its knees. >> president trump: we are now

number one in the world and energy. he used to be saudi arabia, russia, it is now number one, ad soon, as soon as i get the pipelines and taxes approved, which i'll do pretty quickly, would have taken ten, 15 years. i will have it on very quickly. we could increase our production by 30, 40% in terms of sale. so what we have done in the last two and half years has been great. we've had a lot of great people that have worked hard. by the great people are the people of the country. they were being strangled. you look at what we have done, just energy e all over, all typs of energy. nng, we are the hottest in the world, there is nobody even close. so it's been an honor, it's been an honor, we freed it out. you would have had, i really believe, you might've had a depression are very close. had the other side won. >> sean:on mr. president , devin nunes wrote a column, the

former house ranking member of the house intel committee, and 2014, warning the biden-obama administration about russia interference in the 2016 election. he laid it out perfectly in 2014. this all happened on theirir watch. all of it happened on their watch. and the question to you, there was some collusion, wasn't there? we know that. bought and paid for russian dossier, and we didn't look into that, and the whole two plus years of mueller, the media has ignored it, even "the new york times" suggesting it m was likely russian misinformation from the get-go, the dossier. what are your thoughts about that? >> president trump: i think it's a disgrace. it turned out to be totally discredited. steele was sued by somebody, i understand, a wealthy gentleman in london. i hear that what was revealed

was incredible. just a total phonyhe deal. yet they didn't look into any of that. one of the things that amazes me because it is soso simple, and when you get right down to it, the whole thing is very simple, what happened. the fact is, they were spying on my campaign, using agencies to -- intelligence agencies to do it, going after paige and papadopoulos and probably others. i'm trying to -- we are trying to figure out whether they actually listened to my calls. that would be the ultimate. we'll see what happens. i think if that happened, we'll probably find out. we have a great attorney general who is working very hard and we'll see what happens. i stay uninvolved. i like to stay uninvolved. a lot of things are going to come out. i mean, if they spied on my campaign, and they may have, it will be one of the great revelations and history of this

country. i will tell you, going to be veryer interesting. i think we will find out. can you imagine if it were the other way around and i spied on president obama's campaign? could you imagine what the repercussions would be? or i spied on crooked hillary's campaign? can you imagine what the repercussions would be? >> sean: let me ask you specifically, i want to stay on this topic because i think this abuse of power is very dangerous. you addressed it last night. sir, your campaign wasn't spied on. in october of 2016 , hillary's dossier, bought and paid for russian dossier, paid y her, andy the money she controlled with the dnc, that was funneled through a law firm, that hired oppo research group that hired a foreign national, we now know that bruce ohr testified behind closed doors that everybody was warned that christopher steele hated you, that hillary paid for it, and

that it was not verified. that was august of 2016. 14 days before jim comey signed the first fisa application and a fisa application, i am told, says the word "verified" on it, before he signed it, he was warned by kathleen kavalec of the state department who met with christopher steele. my question is, you are spied on as a candidate, during your transition, as president, and abroad, we have stefan halper spying on carter page, sam clovis, george papadopoulos, so those are just ways that we've already verified. it is not in dispute any more. your campaign was spied on. your transition was spied on. jim comey, three months after he signed that warrant, verifying the russian dossier, bulk of information is true, he then came to trump tower and told you, it is salacious but unverified. the opposite of what he was telling the court. doou you believe that there wasa

premeditated fraud committed against fisa court judges in these applications?>> >> president trump: again, people are looking into that. if you are asking just my opinion, i would say absolutely, yes, it would seem to be yes. when you get the peter strzok-page, the two levers who put right out of the public waves, they put the insurance policy, we've been living through the insurance policy, that she was going to win but just in case she did and were not, we needed an insurance policy. that is a -- what they did was unbelievable that they could do a thing like that. then d reported to mccabe, who i think is a terrible, terrible guy, and you know, the fbi, some of the finest people in the world. you know that. we stayed all the time. i bet you if we took a vote, i would be so high in that poll afraid you wouldn't even believe it. there would be people, i know so many. eothe top people were terrible. they were leakers. they wereeo liars. i mean, look at the leaking and

looking atki look at the lying. comey admitted he leaked. the top of the fbi. when you look at went went on, sean, it's disgusting. the whole concept of they want an insurance policy just in case she loses, that is what we've lived through, we've lived through the insurance policy, and yet the house committee, which ii understand today was in a very closed, confidential meeting with the wonderful hope hicks, she's a wonderful person, she's been through hell. they put this young woman through hell. what she has had to pay for legal fees, and everything else, i hear they were taking pictures of her, congressman, two congressmen in particular that i see on television all the time, i want to mention their names, we don't want to make them any more famous, but two congressman, they were taking pictures of her with their cell phone and then leaking the pictures. of her testifying. this was in a closed room. look, it is out of control.

these people are absolutely, you know, they use that word -- it's a good word, i guess. unhinged. what's happened to the democrats, and in the meantime, they are not doing any work in congress. we could do legislation to lower drug prices, very substantially. easily. we could do may be almost, like, theou thing we need most quickly is border security. we've done an incredible job but i have to do it myself. we can't get any votes from the democrats. we can't get any boats. and infrastructure, we could do it so easily. but they are so busy interviewing hope hicks and taking pictures of this incredible young woman and

putting the pictures out to the press of her testifying. and they are not allowed to do that. it's probably illegal. it's a terrible thing going on, sean. >> sean: is sore, they have been four separate investigations. let me remind you. the nine month fbi investigation, the one that peter strzok said there is no they are there, lisa page said we had nothing after nine months. as it relates to collusion. then there was a house intel committee investigation, no collusion, then the bipartisan senate committee, no collusion, then the mueller report, directly quoted, no collusion, nod m conspiracyonitgatiti. i had wanted you -- i am a talk show host, sometimes due straight news, sports and culture, i give strong conservative opinions, i've been a conservative all my career, we don't hide that fact. but iin have wanted you to declassifyan the 302s, declassify all this information, the fisa applications, declassify the gang of eight, declassify the exculpatory information. you have done so but you gave it to the attorney general. why? >> president trump: yes. because i think that he is a very honorable gentleman. he wants to do the right thing and he is allowed to come under

my agreement, he is allowed to give it out to whoever he wants. but i think it is really, you know, maybe some of this you need to have for purposes of other countries because i think other countries were involved.ed i think they perhaps, just based on what i'm seeing, they used other countries because they didn't want to get caught doing what they were doing in this country, you know that very well. >> sean: mr. president, i believe -- >> president trump: bill bar,it everything that i can do in terms of opening it up, making it transparent as the akpoliticians like to use that word, "transparent, i'm the most transparent president in history, i let mueller have everything they wanted. if you think of it, 500 witnesses, interview our attorneys, interview whoeverss u want. i think 2,500 subpoenas. i did not use presidential privilege because i didn't speak to russia. russia has -- when i was winning in wisconsin, when i was winning

in michigan and pennsylvania and ohio and florida and all of these states, north carolina, the last person or group i ever thought of calling would be russia. it is a hoax. as a terrible hoax and it should never happen to another president again because many of them would not be able to handle it. i don't care who they are. many of them would not be able to handle it. do you think joe biden could handle it? i mean, joe biden right now, he looks like he'sks got some big problems. but do you -- can you imagine if this happened to joe biden? it wouldn't be good. but it should never happen to another president, what happened to me, and it should never happen, nobody should ever allow this to go forward again, and people have to learn, there has to be a lesson taught, there has to be a lesson taught. it should never be allowed fraid so badad for our country. >> sean: mr. president, i do have a question about this, because you didn't invoke executive privilege.

you handed in 1.4 million documents. you encouraged your staff to cooperate with congress, to cooperate with mueller. i never liked mueller's team. i could not, for the life of me, understand, how to see how hire andrew weissmann, the worst record of any lawyer i've ever seen, people like jeannie rhee, who was once clinton's lawyer on the clinton foundation, and you gave written answers, you even let your white house counsel donald mcgahn testify for 30 hours. i was a little shocked, to be honest. why would you allow that? >> president trump: i let out i everybody testify. i wanted them to be totally open because i knew there was nothing there. there was nothing there. nothing at all. but you know, bob mueller was conflicted because he wanted to be the head of the fbi, the director, again, he was already there for ten or 12 years. but he wanted to be, and i didn't allow that. i said no. i said it respectfully. weid had a witness dispute in te

private life when he was out of thee fbi, we had a commercial business dispute. having bridges disputes with somebody, and then he supposed o be ruling with you, but it was a business dispute. it was a nasty little dispute, not the biggest one i've ever been in, to be honest with you, but we had a real business dispute. you look at that, that is a total conflict of interest. how can somebody where you have a dispute be ruling? and his best friend is comey. and comey played a big part in this because mccabe didn't do anything without comey. mccabe was totally dominated by comey. he did nothing. andrew mccabe was a bad guy. but andrew mccabe did nothing without calling comey. he wouldn't -- there is an expression. he wouldn't go to the bathroom without getting comey's approva approval. so comey and john brennan, you i take a look at john brennan, you talk about the horrible rhetori

rhetoric, the horrible words he used -- >> sean: he accused you of treason, sir. >> president trump: he said, i guess i was misinformed. he was making all these predictions, and then when it w said nohe collusion in the muelr report, which is amazing, because they had 18 people that were hillary clinton people, that i think all of them actually were anti-trump people in one form or another. many of these people come with , they gave to clinton's campaign, one or two of them, including andrew weissmann, where at the event, which are not to be, as you know, her wake. itit was a funeral. it was supposed to be a party at the convention center in new york break turned into a funeral. ct>> sean: the so-called victory party. >> president trump: i saw the same scene as you did. pretty devastating.me think about it, bob mueller was great friends with comey, right there there's a conflict. he wanted the fbi job, and we had a business dispute. i would tell everybody he wouldi listen, i told you a long time

ago, i said, how could he be doing this? despite that, let him do it, i said, let him do it, because i had nothing to do -- they know that, they all know that -- i had nothing to do with russia. i love our country, i love our country. by doing this, i've sacrificed a lot. iif had a very simple life, gret company, everything was great. i sacrificed a lot. but i've made a tremendous difference. there are so many people come up to me, sean, and they say, thank you, sir, for saving our country. and i used toi take it with a grain of salt, oh, -- but they say it and they mean it. the other day, i went to -- i was the convention speaker at the air force academy, incredible young people, and i handed t out 1,000 diplomas to e senior class. that's a lot of shaking hands and saluting, i will tell you. it was a couple of hours. but it was great. but so many young, beautiful

people, the young people, the beginning of an incredible life, they came up to me, they say, thank you, sir, for saving our country. i know exactly what they mean. our country was in big trouble. we've got it turned now in the right direction. >> sean: mr. president, just as an aside, youct did have constitutional authority under article two with a conflict to fire mueller,rt who would have been replaced -- >> president trump: absolutely right. i had absolutely article two powers. i could have done anything i wanted. i don't even bring it up because we don't even get there. absolutely, i have article two. we could have used that, i wouldn't even have to bother to talk to you about all of thedn other things. i wouldn't have to talk talking about conflicts. i could have fired to mueller for conflicts, i could have fired everybody but i didn't want to do it because i said, let it play out, it's a hoax. it's a hoax. it's a disgrace. and that they are allowed to go forward with, you know, interviewing people, having people like hope hicks and others, havingpe to pay for a nw set of lawyers? they just went through it with the mueller report.

now, she was totally exonerated, she did nothing wrong, and all they have to start paying for lawyersav again? it is a do over because the report was terrible for them. absolute -- cannot allow do overs. >> sean: this would be the fifth investigation, and you are right, those washington lawyers are expensive. i had to hire a few of them in my day. i just want to say one thing, one good question i want answered is, did italy, did great britain great britain comforted australia, where the outsourced intelligenceou gathering by high-ranking people -- not rank-and-file -- to spy on american citizens and certain upfront american laws? it will be a big question. i want to change gears. >> president trump: andy green! take a look at ukraine. how come the fbi did not take the server. podesta told them to get out. he said, get out. so how come the fbi did not take the server or from the dnc? just think about that one, sean.

think about that one. >> sean: let me ask you, there's 20 some odd candidates. i want to get your general thoughts on all of them. is there anyone in particular you would prefer to run against or do you care at all? >> president trump: well, we have to see how it plays out. i mean, whoever it is, it is. i don't know. i look at some of them, i don't see george washington. i don't see churchill. i don't see anybody in particular that i worry about. i think, honestly, whoever it is, it is. >> sean: i don't see ngeorge washington either, sir. >> president trump: usese all the polls that came out today, we had a couple of legitimate ps that came out today, not the polls that the media makes up. see, i'm fighting the democrats in the media together. you know that better than almost anybody. the people know that. i am fighting the democratic party and i'm fighting the media. they are partners. they are partners. i mean, that is why they don't

go after hillary clinton with her emails, where she -- anybody else would be inin jail for what she did, the emails, to delete 33,000 emails after -- after -- after, not before you get a subpoena from congress,s, you delete everything, so people never got to see them. but the media and the democrats are -- not all of it -- what a big portion of it, they are a partnership. and that is disgraceful. so i am fighting that partnership. i'm not fighting -- actually, fighting the media is much tougher than fighting the democrats, if you want to know the truth. >> sean: mr. president, i call them the media mob. it is for -- for example, i say it is every second, every second, every minute, every houv of every day, and they all lied, they all fell for the hoax in the conspiracy theory, and they are trying to revisit it. i want to ask you -- >> president trump: they did not fall for the't hoax. theyt' know it's a hoax. they write about it anyway. these are very smart people. they know it's a hoax.

they write about it anyway. i watch -- when i have to, i do it to get a little ammunition, you know, you have to know where the other side is coming from. i watch every once in a while, i'll turn to msnbc. i'll see what they say, i know most of the people, and it's a fraud. they go back and they beat and what can we make up? or member when everybody used the word "manufactured"?ha every newscast had the word manufactured but is not a word associated with what they were talking about. they were talking about something being manufactured.d. and every newscast started with "manufactured," and he did it with numerous words, i come up with a word, they put it out. they were altogether. it is a really disgraceful situation. here's the good news. we are president. we have gone -- we've done it. and we are going to do it again. when you see a crowd like that, sean, nobody seen anything like that.

i mean, not only a crowd, no one has seen the spirit to come by the spirit on the energy, it's been incredible. i say the republicans have far more energy -- you hear about the energy on the democrat side, they don't have energy. they are all fighting with each other. i say the republicans are far more energy than the democrats. i really believe that. >> sean: a few of them, sir, could use a little -- >> president trump: the radical left dems. >> sean: a few of them could use a spine transplant in my view but i don't want to go there. >> president trump: but we have some great ones. a we have some great ones. you are right, there are some that really should -- look, nancy pelosi consult subpoenas like they are cookies. i will tell you when jim and mark meadows, jim jordan, devin, all these people, great people -- >> sean: amazing. >> president trump: when they went to paul ryan to get a subpoena because they found the same things that we are talking about, paul would say, let's take it easy, let's come back in

a week, let's see if we still think -- let's do this -- it was impossible. you could not get a subpoena. she hands out subpoenas like they are cookies. >> sean: let me ask you -- >> president trump: big difference. ncthey fight it dirty or fried.e the democrats fight a dirty or fight. it is too bad. >> sean: the democrat debates begin next week, they are supporting the new green deal. in ten years, they want to get rid of the lifeblood of our economy, oil and gas. everything is going to be free. they are talking about a 70% top marginal tax rate for individuals, 90% of the percent top marginal rate for businesses, and a wealth tax on top of that, and then when you die, you have to pay a tax, and everything is free. they all seem to support some version of it, and medicare for all, but you can't buy private insurance, according to, say, kamala harris. how did obamacare work out for everybody? what is your reaction to this agenda? >> president trump: first of

all, with obamacare, we took out the individual mandate, which is the worst part. obamacare is a disaster and we've managed a really well. you don't hear so much about it. we've really done a great job. secretary azor has been incredible, the way they can tell obamacare. but i got rid of the individual mandate, which was the worst thing in obamacare. that is where you pay for the privilege of not having to pay for insurance, forbade insurance, bad health care. so it is just one of those things. no, i think -- i think that when i meet somebody who even doesn't like me, let's say it's a business person, and they are not trump fans, isaac, you have no choice. [laughs] you can't vote for anybody else. becauseor they want to turn this country over to -- i mean, we will be a venezuela. it will take ten years or 15 o years, but if the wrong person got in -- i've turned it around, sean. i've gotten rid of these rules and regulations that stifled everything. i approve the keystone pipeline.

i proved the numerous other pipelines. by the way, environmentally good as opposed to trains running across, you know, the planes, and all of the other things. no, i approved so many different things that are actually good for you do you know that a report came out, our water and our air today is cleaner than it ever was? because in many respects, we are great environmentalists. i'm an environmentalist! but a different kind a real environmentalist brave our water is crystal clean, our air, it's the best it ever was. >> sean: i i would agree, sir, we all need to be good stewards of the greatest country god gave man. are you really going to live to eat these democratic debates, sir? >> president trump: i wasn't going to but i read about it in "the wall street journal" or someplace and it's just fake news. no, i wasn't even thinking about it. maybe i will now. might as well make them right. >> sean: if i could cast my vote, i'm a "yes." i think it will be a great idea.

>> president trump: it he wrote about her, as if it was back. i never even thought about it. it's ridiculous. maybe i'll do it. make them a bit of fake news, i will make them correct news. >> sean: i think it would>> be a great idea. i think will be very interesting actually. i've seen for example that you promised that i.c.e. will begin the process of b removing millis of people that did not respect our laws, borders, sovereignty, 90% of the heroine in this country comes across the southern border. now fenton all. we are losing 300 people a week in this country. my question to you is, there are some people that will ask me about you, and they will say, you've known them for over two decades, which i have, and i've known you a long time, and you said he'd be conservative, and you are right, we did not believe r you, you are pro-life, conservative justices, tax cuts, deregulation, energype independence, all things i believed in 30 years in media. so now you are fighting for the border wall the people say,

maybe donald trump should maybe suite a little less, not fight so much on the personal level. but yet it takes a fight against china, against mexico, you are kind of standing alone saying that you would hit them with tariffs if they didn't stop this -- these migrations from tihappening. so my question to you is, how do you respond to that? people wantt to, i guess, to tun off the switch that you fight for the porters,it you fight for your agenda, but they don't want you to maybe fight on twitter. >> president trump: well, i don't use the word twitter. i say social media. if i don't use social media, i have come s outside of you, anda few other great people -- i call them patriots, actually, not really patriots as much as you want ratings. you are getting great drain ratings come in all fairness, s. last night, you had tremendous ratings, that was an easy night. you and tucker and everybody else, you did it.t. it was a great evening.

no, i think -- i view it as a social media, as a way of getting the word out. when you have the lies and the frauds committed by the other networks, many of the other networks, you look at what is going on, it is disgraceful. this way, i get the word out. i'm getting it out strongly. i have hundreds of millions of people that see this, plus, as soon as i do it we'd come it gets broadcast, even on the places that you would least expect it, because they areec desperate for news. you know, they are desperate to do anything for news. so it's really a way of getting the truth out because the media has just gone loco. they don't even call for a fact-check. ier remember ten years ago, 15 years ago -- actually used to get great press if you want to know the truth -- ten or 15 years -- just had to become a politician and run a conservative basis because that is what it is, that is what we are doing so well at, that is why the country is doing so well now -- we are probably doing better right now, with our

economy, wages are up, have not gone up in years, in decades, wages are up over 3%, think of the things that have happened. the jobs, the unemployment, that people work at, companies are pouring back into our country from japan. o they are coming back for them, frankly, coming back from china because of the fact that for the tariffs on an order not to pay the tariffs, coming back into this country. so many things are happening. but the way i get the word out is through social media.ia it's a great thing. i don't know that i would've been successful if i didn't have it. you know, when i make a speech like last night, there was a fantastic woman right in the front, she had "please keep tweeting, mr. president ," that was her sign, please keep tweeting, it matters. i don't do it because i enjoyed, i do it because an outright lie on msnbc or cnn, both of whom who are really suffering in the ratings, which is really

interesting, it's incredible. they've lost credibility.in when they put out lies, i can counteract those lies and i have many more followers than they d do. >> sean: let me ask you, you know, you said you were going to begin the process of removing millions of illegal immigrants. i just want to get to the status of the border wall.th i know there's been miles repaired on miles built. will it be finished in the first term? they were not able to override your veto and you weren't able to read all reallocate funds. >> president trump: as you know, the democrats are doing everything possible to stop the wall and they lost a big lawsuit last week. won a big, big lawsuit against nancy pelosi and the house, the house actually brought a lawsuit. can you believe that? the house, the democrats brought a lawsuit, nancy pelosi, and we won the lawsuit as you probably read. we will have -- we will have four other lawsuits against us, also my related, related to each other. we are building a tremendous

wall right now. we are renovating vast areas of all that are essentially glass but it's good if you renovate, so we'll have over 400 miles of wall built by the end of next year, which is very cloak, rapidly approaching. we have three sections being built right now, we are building them in different areas, different states. new mexico is a tremendous problem with people pouring across new mexico i'm hearing that because of that, new mexicy because of new mexico. it is m horrible what is happen happening. the sections has started and are about to start in new mexico, we just finished san diego, san diego and california, they are so happy, the mayor but just in my office, great guy, and he came up to thank me for having done the wall because it's made

such a difference. he said it is day and night. people are flowing across, now nobody can come in. i was able to design and redesign the wall where it is stronger, bigger, higher, actually got a little bit higher if you remember that. it's a better ball and it cost less money. it's actually a stronger wall, cost less money. so we are doing really well with the wall, and it's very important element, and we are doing well overall and we are going to start removing all the people that t came in because te democrats will not, under any circumstances, they won't fix asylum. asylum is a big problem. we could fix it in 15 minutes and they won't get rid of the loopholes, because they want us to fail. it is more important that we fail then the country succeed. you have drugs and you have all the other things. what we are doing is, as the people come out and as we get the necessary paperwork, we are moving people out of the innardo of the country, and we are

bringing them back. and the countries that see this, they see it happening, it starts -- it's already started, but it's really starting at a much heavier fashion next week. gearing up. sending the signal that you may get income but you are not getting in for long, and you are going out.re on the other thing, finally, mexico, for the first time ever, for the first time in many, many decades, they are respecting us. we had a big fight and worked out great. mexico, 6,000 soldiers on the southern border, on their southern border, stopping people from comingpl in, and they've bn really stepping it up. frankly, i was going to put tariffs on them if they didn't. if they didn't do that, i would have thought tariffs, and i still will. but they've been doing a really good job, and people at the port it will tell you that the traffic has really dropped downd so a lot of good things are happening. but if the democrats would meet

for 20 minutes, 15 minutes, used to be 45, just a very short meeting. we could solve the border problem. but they don't want to do that because they think it is bad politically. i think what's bad, sean, what's really bad, is what they are doing. i think it's terrible politically. people come in, it is crime, it is drugs, we could stop at all so fast. but we will stop with anyway, even if we don't have the democrats. >> sean: i say that nancy pelosi's speaker in name only, and that congress and alexandria ocasio-cortez has really become the big star, even nigel bidenom to come up with a new greendale plan. what are your thoughts about her, congressman omar, the position that nancy pelosi is an? >> president trump: i don't believe agree with you. i thinksi nancy pelosi has control. i really believe she does. she knows what she's doing. we'll see how it comes out. look, we have the usmca, the

mexico and canada trade deal, a phenomenal deal for our country, and it's good for them to you. it's a phenomenal deal for our farmers, our manufacturers, even unions. everybody wantss it. so the democrats can do that in a bipartisan way. mexico distributed today, you probably heard, just approved it. their house just approved it. in a big book. we are just waiting to see whether or not they will buy that up for a vote. think about it, can you imagine? it will be a very bipartisan approval. but nancy and all of the folks in the house, they have to put it up for a vote. great for the farmers. everybody wants them to do it. we'll see, again, do they want to do what's right for the party? they can take credit for that bill because, frankly, make it bipartisan. we'll almost forget. it's a big meal. canada is approving it, mexico just approved it. very, very big deal. hundreds of billions of dollars to our country, and thousands

and thousands of jobs, and it replaces nafta, one of the worst trade deals ever made. >> sean: let me ask you about foreign policy, if i may.ut you made promises to israel, jerusalem is now the capital, many other presidents promised it, they did not deliver. you recognized all along, watch other people promised and did not deliver, you promised you to get us out of the iranian deal. i don't think your going to drop $150 billion in cash and other currency on the tarmac of mullahs that chant "death to america." i worry aboutf iranian hegemony, i worry about iranian proxy wars in terror, i worry about their alliance with vladimir putin, and i'm not sure where china shakes out in all of this, as you look at the geopolitical work up there, iran, russia, china, tell me your concerns. >> president trump: i don't worry about a thing. everything is under control.g don't worry about a thing. you are right, we did that for

israel, jerusalem, as you know, every president said, you lose move the embassy to jerusalem, becomes the capital of israel, every president said we are going to do it, none ofof them did, i did it. the goal on heights, 452 years they've been talking about the golan heights, i did it, they didn't do it. you get here, there's a lot of people calling, begging you not to do it from other countries, heads of countries. but presidents are practically all said they would do golan heights, jerusalem, they didn't do it. then terminating one of the worst deals ever made, via randy l itn was made by president obama, paid 150 billion, $1.8 billion in cash. i terminated that, and iran is a much different country. i will tell you, much different today than when i took over. when i took over, looked like there was no stopping them. we'll see what happens. i would say, if i were you, don't worry about a thing. >> sean: what about putin and

china? >> president trump: well, they were forced together by president obama. he would never like to see that but they were t forced togethery his attitude and by what he did. when i got here, they were getting very close. but we are doing things that nobody will be able to even compete with and so many different ways. second of all, we are going to have a good relationship with russia, and we are going to have a good relationship with china. it's very important that we do. they are powerful nations and w are very powerful nation. i rebuilt our military to a level that nobody thought possible, $716 billion last year, nobody thought it -- it was depleted. we had planes that were so old, couldn't fly. our military is almost completed in terms of being rebuilt and we are doing missile and missile technology that nobody is even seen before we think about do

we announce it or do we not? we have tremendous levels of sophistication like you've never seen. with all of that being said, i want to get along with russia. i think we will. i want to get along with china. i think we will. i'm meeting both of them in japan at the g-20. >> mr. president -- >> it's important they get along. the witch hunt in russia hurt us in terms of relationship with a lot ofof people. but we have good relationships with countries and sometimes countries that you wouldn't think so. you have to pay for nato. the united states was paying for nato. >> mr. president? >> you have a lot of countries delinquent in the payments to nato. i got them to pay over $100 billion towards nato. we're going to get along with a lot of countries but those two in particular -- i think we'll have